maieutic 的詞源

"蘇格拉底式的輔助一個人通過問題發現潛藏在他的頭腦中的概念"，1650年代，源自希臘語 maieutikos，這是哲學中一個比喻用法，字面意思是"助產的"，來自 maieuesthai "擔任接生婆"，源自 maia "接生婆"（參見 Maia）。

By putting leading questions on general or well-known facts, Socrates, by easy steps, to the surprise and delight of his subject, would bring him to the enunciation of some principle hitherto unknown or undeveloped in his mind. This is called his Maieutic: a term which Socrates himself suggested, likening his relation to the development and birth of ideas in the mind to that mid-wife office which his mother performed for the body. Both this feature and the illustration afforded fine material for jest to Aristophanes, who, in his usual comic way, proceeded to literalize the metaphor. [Samuel Ross Winans, "Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates," Boston: 1890]

蘇格拉底通過對一般或衆所周知的事實提出引導性問題，通過簡單的步驟，令他的對象驚訝和愉悅，使他發現了他頭腦中迄今爲止未知或未開發的原則。這被稱爲他的助產術：蘇格拉底本人提出了這個術語，將他與頭腦中思想的發展和誕生的關係比作他母親爲身體所做的助產工作。這個特點和描繪爲笑話的材料，對阿里斯托芬來說是很好的素材，他以他通常的喜劇方式，將這個隱喻具體化了。[塞繆爾·羅斯·維南斯，《蘇格拉底的《憶蘇錄》》，波士頓：1890年]